How to make Your Company One of the Best Places to Work

Is your organisation such a great place to work?

Have you seen our list of the best places to work in Nigeria? Want to get on the list next year or improve your ranking as an employer? To make it you should know your employees and their needs, their lifestyle preferences and the things that they consider important.

For instance, if you are looking to hire millennials (individuals born between 1980 and 2000) to constitute the majority of your workforce, then you must understand that this generation has a very strong affinity for technology and wellness.

Employers are beginning to embrace the realities of working with this generation of employees. Currently, they make up 27% of the world’s 7.4 billion people.

In order to make your organisation one of the best places to work, you must pay attention to the following:

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Coaches are valued over bosses

Employees often quit their jobs because of their bosses. It is your responsibility as a manager and employer to create a situation where your employees feel valued and appreciated at work.

For employees, it is important to them that they feel supported and valued by their employers. When this is achieved, the productivity of employees increases and your company will be seen as one of the best places to work.

Employees appreciate valuable relationships as this endears them to your organisation. As an employer, your relationship with your employees must go beyond the formal work reviews that employees typically have with their bosses. Your employees would feel more confident and appreciated if you check in on them from time to time.

Feedback is crucial

For your company to be considered one of the best places to work, your employees look forward to a steady flow of feedback from you. They expect their achievements to be acknowledged, openly recognised and appreciated.

Employees will not hesitate to contribute their ideas to the policies and growth of your organisation, but they do expect feedback from you to know that they are valued. In cases where they make mistakes, they want you to tell them what they did right and then proceed to correct them on where they have gone wrong in order for them to improve. Brainstorming with your employees is one of the great ways to deliver reviews and feedback on their performance.

Resolve issues quickly

Whenever there are issues concerning your employees, give them the priority they deserve. The best companies to work with are companies that resolve issues as soon as they arise.

Regular meetings

To make your company a prime destination for talents, you must develop a culture of having regular meetings with your employees. For instance, it is important to update your employees on happenings within and around your organisation. Why?

You also have an opportunity of asking for their feedback on what they think the company can do better. You should also use this opportunity to ask them what they think you do really well as an employer. In essence, you have to communicate with your employees. By communication, we’re not referring to emails and memos. Consider a weekly, fortnightly or monthly meeting with your employees if your goal is to make your company one of the best places to work.

Attractive salary

If you pay your employees below industry standards and expect them to be excited about working with you, you are not being realistic. At the very least, your salary has to meet the industry standard. Anything lower would be shooting yourself in the foot.

The salary does not have to be outrageously high but, it has to be enough to get a nod of satisfaction from your employees. They are the ones who determine if your company should be ranked as one of the best places to work and not you.

Office design

The importance of office space has changed enormously in recent years. Gone are the days when the definition of a suitable office space was simply to a chair, a table and a laptop. The office space has evolved over the years and continues to evolve. Today, it is not surprising to find offices with ping pong tables that double as conference tables.

Employees all over the world are beginning to pay more attention to what their office space looks like. They tell their friends in other companies about what their office space looks like. Offices with very contemporary designs give your employees bragging rights of sorts. Your employees will be excited to show off their office space if they feel really good about it.

A rising percentage of today’s workforce consider your office space a factor to consider when deciding if your company should be a place they want to work. The more appealing they find your office, the higher your company will rank as one of the best places to work.So it’s no surprise that top companies like Facebook and Google, lure in talent with their inventive spaces.

The fact that millennials now constitute a majority of the workforce for most companies makes this even more interesting.

Additional benefits

Aside their salaries, skilled employees value additional perks that come with the job. Benefits like health insurance, vacation time, occasional tickets to the movies/shows/event, additional personal time and free registration at gyms are some of the things that make skilled candidates consider your company one of the best places to work. An attractive salary is always appreciated but the more benefits you have available for your employees, the more satisfied they will be and the higher they will rate your company as being an amazing place to work.

Work-life balance is essential

A ‘work-life’ balance refers to an employee’s ability to strike a balance between their work roles, their personal responsibilities, and family life. If you encourage a healthy work-life balance within your organisation, your employees will appreciate how you know the difference between their working hours and their personal time. This is one thing you should not take for granted. If you abuse your employees’ personal time by insisting they work beyond their official working hours or weekends, then you will pay a heavy price of having disgruntled employees.

Your employees have a life outside working within your organisation. Helping your employees achieve a healthy work-life balance strengthens their loyalty and productivity. According to a study conducted by Lowe in 2005, one out of every four employees experience a high level of conflict between work and family, based on work-to-family interference and caregiver strain.

You must also understand that not all employees work the same way. While you might have employees who have no problem working during their personal time, this will not apply to everyone. You should strive to discourage your employees from working after hours to avoid stress.

Flexible working hours

When offered flexible working hours, employee have a strong tendency to work for longer hours. It also makes them more productive, as they are working in their own optimal hours. For instance, while some of your employees might prefer working the usual 9am to 5pm, some might prefer working 11am to 7pm.You might even have employees who are willing to work for 10 hours daily; thereby cutting the number of days they work in a week to four instead of the conventional 5.

Allowing your employees to vary their arrival and/or departure times will work wonders for your brand as an amazing place to work.

When you help your employees achieve flexible working hours, they end up with a higher job satisfaction and company loyalty. As you might have guessed, this makes your organisation a fantastic place to work in the estimation of employees.

Final thoughts

No matter how amazing you think your company is as an employer, it will count for nothing if your employees do not feel the same way. The higher the level of job satisfaction your employees derive from your company, the more your company will rank as one of the best places to work.The higher your employees rank you between not satisfied and very satisfied using the metrics above, the higher your company would rank as one of the best places to work in Nigeria.